Shah Khalil Allah III

Shah Khalil Allah III was the 45th Imam of the Nizari Ismaili Shia Islam community. Khalilullah Ali III was born in 1740 in the city of Kerman. His upbringing in Mahallat, Iran, began under the care of his uncle, Mirza Muhammad Bakir at the age of two years, and got rudiments of his formal education at home. In 1792, he succeeded his father Abū-l-Ḥasan ‘Alī ibn Qāsim ‘Alī as Imam, as his eldest son. He moved the seat of the Imamate from Kirman to Kahak, from where he led for 20 years. His name of Shah Khalil Allah was a Ni'matullāhī Sufi name, which reflected the close relationship between the Nizaris and Ni'matullāhīs. In 1815, Shāh Khalīlullāh moved to Yazd in order to be closer to his Indian followers.